Workspace behaviour
Compare Mode forces every pane into a read-only permission mode so multiple agents can't write to the same workspace concurrently.
Compare Mode's defining safety property is that no pane can write to your workspace while a comparison is running.
Forced read-only permission modes
Every agent added to a comparison is automatically placed into a safe permission mode, regardless of what its default is elsewhere in AgentDock:
| Agent | Forced mode |
|---|---|
| Claude Code | plan |
| Codex | read-only |
| Antigravity | plan |
This exists specifically so that multiple agents evaluating the same prompt can't simultaneously edit the same files — you get comparable read/analysis output without risking conflicting writes.
AgentDock Pro
In AgentDock Pro, Compare Mode goes further: it automatically declines any prompt from an agent trying to escalate out of its forced read-only mode mid-comparison, and it automatically removes the temporary compare sessions once you leave Compare Mode rather than leaving them in your normal session list.
Related
- Permissions & Safety → Agent permissions — how these same permission modes work in a normal session.